Digital Marketing and Social Media are fast evolving
topics. It’s hard to keep track of things for many people, so we always look up
to some kind of an ‘expert’ or a ‘go to person’ to get the latest knowledge we
need.

The question most Sri Lankan marketers face is that
they don’t have too many trusted ‘go to people’ in Sri Lanka to learn what they
want. When you are totally clueless about whom to follow to get latest
knowledge about Digital Marketing and Social Media , you can easily get
misguided by some self-proclaimed “world-class expert” who have no much of
recognition even in their own home country.

Let me make your job easy. I am going to list 10 truly
globally renowned Digital Marketing and Social Media experts who pioneered this
field. They have proven their expertise in the field over many years by helping
brands all over the world succeed in the digital age. They have written books
with substance (anybody can write a book without substance and claim to be a published
author), and sold millions of copies of their books. They have spoken at big
global events like SXSW, TED, SMMW, and many more. Above
all, you can find enough knowledge about Digital Marketing, Social Media
Marketing, and about converging digital tools with traditional marketing by
only reading the freely available blogs written by these people or by watching
some of the videos of speeches they have delivered. Best thing is, you can
learn all of these things without having to pay a cent. They write blogs, and
they do podcasts!

Here’s the trick. Appoint a junior executive (or a
management trainee) from your marketing team and assign them the responsibility
of following these 10 people on a weekly basis. And then ask them to circulate
a summary of what they have learned. Maybe they can do one hour training
session every month, to pass the knowledge he gathered to rest of your team.
This way, you can save hundreds of thousands of money you would otherwise waste
on workshops and training programs which covers nothing more than what is
available free of charge on the internet.

I first started following Rohit’s ‘Influential
Marketing Blog’ back in 2006 during my early career. For last 10 years, Rohit
had been really consistent with his blog, and has published a large number of
valuable articles about ‘digital influence’ and social media. He has written
many books about digital influence and social economy, including bestsellers
like Personality Not Included and Likeonomics. For anyone interested in hearing
the latest digital trends from a person who had been truly consistent in
predicting future digital trends, Rohit surely is the go to person. Read his blog here.

Ann is another digital age marketer I followed for
nearly 10 years. I first discovered Ann’s writings through MarketingProfs.com,
a community website for marketing professionals around the world. Today, Anne
is one of the most influential authority figures in the field of Content
Marketing. If you need to learn more about what’s the big buzz about Content
Marketing, then Ann is the person you need to follow closely.

Mari is one of the best go to persons on everything about Facebook pages.
For tips of getting more organic likes for your fan page, to get your fans
deeply engaged with your content, Mari will teach you a great deal of social
media engagement strategies for Facebook. Of course her expertise doesn’t limit
to Facebook, but I have bookmarked Mari as my number 1 source of knowledge
about Facebook fan pages.

He sounds a little drunk in his podcast (err…
pubcast!) but that doesn’t hinder the quality of content he has to share with
you about anything related to Facebook ads. Just as I look up to Mari Smith for
Facebook pages related knowledge, I totally rely on Jon for everything about Facebook ads. Jon Loomer is a true master of
the Facebook ads platform!

“After mediating a crocodile family dispute, look at
what Micheal Stelzner has found!”. That’s one of my favorite lines from his
Social Media Podcast onSocialMediaExaminer.com.
Micheal is the best resource composer I’ve seen in the field of Social Media
Marketing. His podcasts features the best minds in the world of Social Media
and Digital Marketing. In my bucket list, I hope to attend his Social Media
Marketing World conference in San Diego someday (let’s hope the long distance
air travel costs will come down very soon).

Author of the books ‘Engage’ and ‘Seven Success
Factors of Social Business Strategy’, Brian Solis is a Social Media
professional having roots in traditional PR. If you are someone who ended up in
Social Media from a marketing background, here is a person who will bring a
totally different perspective to your worldview about Social Media. I highly recommend
you to check out Brian’s personal website and read some of his books.

The man who inspired millions of digital marketers
around the world! I first started following Seth in 2005, and his book
‘Permission Marketing’ is the first ever book I’ve ordered on Amazon.com. As a
young marketer 11 years ago, I was fascinated by his philosophy of ‘Permission
Marketing’. I remember I was talking about Permission Marketing with some Sri Lankan
marketers in 2008/9, and most of them said “that will never happen in Sri
Lanka!”. 10 years since I read his book, I teach the concept of Permission
Marketing in every Digital Marketing class I teach at the University of Sri
Jayawardenepura.

Think Analytics, think Kaushik. He is the #1 Analytics
guru on the internet (at least according to my ratings). I am someone who
started following Avinash from his very first blog post on Occam's Razor, a long time before he became an ambassador for
Google Analytics. Today, Avinash has evolved into a Data marketer; an evolution
of being an analytics guy for a very long time period I guess. So, if you need
to be in touch with what’s happening in topics such as big data
driven programmatic marketing etc., here is the guy to follow!

OMG! How can I ever forget the friendly Australian who
helps hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of bloggers around the world to
do ProBlogging! When I
started my blog amisampath.com nearly 8 years ago, I followed Darren closely to
learn tips on how make a successful blog. Well, my blog never made a global
list of top 10 of something but I have had some remarkable achievements in my
life thanks to the blog I started using Darren’s tips. Darren still is one of
the most influential authority figures on the internet about Blogging, and
content marketing.

All the 9 other people I’ve listed up to now are
practical experts of Social Media and Digital Marketing. But Dr. Dave Chaffey
is one great academic you should not miss to follow. The author if the book
‘Digital Marketing’, a recommended reading by CIM for all their student
members, Dr. Chaffey is someone who made significant contributions the
knowledge body on digital marketing.

Now, these are truly globally renowned Social
Media and Digital Marketing professionals to follow. If you get a chance to
attend a conference or a workshop where these people are speaking at, never
hesitate to throw your money and book a ticket. You can expect a lot more than
a 5 star lunch such a conference or a workshop.